Open Recliners vs. Appointment Availability

As you may have noticed, we have slowly been increasing the number of appointments available. We have done this by having more overlapping shifts, which means that two acupuncturists are working at the same time.

In order to have enough recliners for overlapping shifts, we need to have a bunch of recliners in the clinic. We are now up to 17 recliners!

We are sometimes asked by patients why there are no appointments available when they can see that there are a bunch of empty recliners. The reason is that we need these extra recliners for overlapping shifts (when two acupuncturists work simultaneously); when we only have one acupuncturist working, only around half of the chairs are in use at any one time, even if the acupuncturist is scheduled to capacity.

For the same reason, patients who arrive late for their appointments may have to be rescheduled even though there are open recliners. For the clinic, the limiting factor is time, not open chairs. If a patient has a 3 p.m. appointment but arrives at 3:10 or 3:20, that person has missed their appointment time, and the other patients who are already booked at 3:10, 3:20, 3:30, etc. are still coming in for their treatments. This is why we always appreciate it when patients arrive on time, and why we oftentimes have to reschedule people who arrive late. Thank you for your understanding!